In an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq, praised his son and criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Khan said that under Trump's proposed immigration policies, his family would never have been allowed to come to the U.S. and that Trump, during his life, has "sacrificed nothing and no one."
Trump responded to Khan in an interview Saturday with ABC News.
"I think I've made a lot of sacrifices," he said. "I've worked very, very hard, I've created thousands and thousands of jobs."
Trump also said he had raised millions of dollars for U.S. veterans and played a big part in getting a Vietnam War memorial built in New York City.
Khan's wife stood by silently while her husband spoke at the Democratic convention. In comments sure to create more controversy, Trump intimated that because she is a Muslim woman, "maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say."
But Ghazala Khan told MSNBC television on Friday that she was very nervous and emotionally overwhelmed when she saw her dead son's picture displayed at the convention.
"I couldn't take it and I controlled myself at that time," she explained.
Trump plans to campaign in the industrial states of Ohio and Pennsylvania on Monday — states Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is currently touring.
No 'crazy promises'
Speaking Saturday at a wire manufacturing plant in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Clinton said she was not there to insult her opponent and make "crazy promises," but to tell voters of plans to "make the biggest investment in new, good-paying jobs" since World War II.
Clinton proposed what she called an infrastructure bank that could leverage funds and make loans to pay for projects such as building roads and bridges. This would eliminate the need to seek congressional appropriations for each particular project.
She said the country could not go back to what she said were failed economic policies of the past, such as tax cuts for the wealthy. She said the rich have to pay their fair share and "support America."
Ohio and Pennsylvania are likely to be key states in the November election. While most recent polls show Clinton leading in both states, blue-collar voters could swing either state for Clinton or Trump.
Much of Trump's success this year has come from his appeal to working-class voters who worry that the U.S. is losing jobs to overseas competitors with cheaper labor.
Trump took to Twitter to say turnout was "small and unenthusiastic" at Clinton's Johnstown event, and he suggested it might be due to the fact that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, supported the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact that that Trump claims sent U.S. jobs to Mexico.
A new survey showed Clinton getting a traditional post-convention bounce in the polls. A RABA Research poll gave her a 15 percentage-point lead over Trump, two days after the Democratic convention ended.
Trump enjoyed a similar bump in the polls just after the Republican convention ended July 21, when the acceptance speeches, balloons and parade of personalities were still fresh in voters' minds.
